A local financial institution has an annual early morning conference known as the Financial Forecast Breakfast which is held at various local eateries. The featured speaker is an astute fellow who in the past has enlightened as well as entertained those gathered. More importantly, his knowledge and wisdom isn’t limited to finance and investment but includes the societal reasons that make the markets move up or down.

A couple of years ago at this breakfast gathering, when President Trump had only been in office a couple of months, the wise financial soothsayer mentioned future investments, international trade and professional careers might well be destroyed by a Presidential tweet. The visionary’s actual words were “beware of the tweet” - and how right he was.

Let’s talk about a 72-year tweeter who is not only grumpy, he’s a born and bred New ‘Yawker’ who speaks his mind with the subtleness of a heart attack and by the way, he’s the President. Someone taught this curmudgeon how to use Tweeter and that someone is probably sorry they did because of the storm of tweets that have let-fly.

America has a President who never held any political office, so we expected him to be unconventional but little did we know it was going to be like this. For little less than two years of the 45th presidency thousands of tweets have been sent out of the White House, many late at night or early in the morning. The subjects – or targets – of these tweets have been everyone from foreign leaders, political rivals all the way to LeBron James.

As a Twitter member myself, I seldom use it as a serious communication tool. As for “@realDonaldTrump”, I am not one of his 56 million social media followers. I seldom pay attention to his tweets. However, his tweet announcing the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson really drew my attention. Here it is: “Mike Pompeo is doing a great job, I am very proud of him. His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough.”

Compare that parting shot of this cabinet member to what the President said when he hired Rex Tillerson: “I have chosen one of the truly great business leaders of the world, Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, to be Secretary of State.” With that glowing welcome when he was hired, it causes many people to wonder who was actually dumb as a rock, the guy who was fired or the guy who hired him.

In the case of Rex Tillerson, he is a private businessman, likely a billionaire and is accustomed to cut-throat personnel decisions. He should have known what he was getting himself into when he accepted his position.

The next high-level administration appointee getting the axe is John ‘Jack’ Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff. So far, Jack Kelly hasn’t yet been maligned by a late-night tweet. This dutiful man Jack Kelly, a career military general, was the Secretary of Homeland Security until tapped by the President to be the White House Chief of Staff. Being a solid Marine, I’m sure he took his presidential appointment order with an “aye, aye, Sir” and began bringing order to a previously chaotic West Wing.

There are others rumored to be on the POTUS soon to be fired list; Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Joint Chief Chairman Joseph Dunford. Again, both Mattis and Dunford are career Marines (your author served with both) and both are American patriots. They served life-long, Spartan careers of public service. They are by no means wealthy men unless fortitude has financial value.

The American middle and working class still seem to like most of President Trump’s policies, but his demeanor is getting increasingly hard to tolerate. Not many regular voting-folks cared if wealthy Rex Tillerson was out of a job or not. However, when it comes to Jack Kelly, a man who dedicated his life to service and lost a son to the War on Terror, it’s a different story. If either Mattis or Dunford suffers an unceremonious discharge thousands of veterans and veteran’s families will turn their backs in November of 2020.

The President should have found a Chief of Staff replacement for Jack Kelly before announcing Kelly’s departure. The presumed successor, Nick Ayers who currently works for Vice President Pence, has declined to take Kelly’s place. Good luck filling any empty post at the White House, because even with all of the problems and issues swirling around this administration, the most likely reason to decline a presidential appointment is the way your predecessor was discharged.